Improvement in railroad-car brakes



I). S. CROSS.

Car Brake.

' No. 47,091. Patented Apr. 4.1865.

NITED STATES ATENT FFIQEQ DAVID S. GROSS, OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

IMPROVEMENT IN RAILROAD-CAR BRAKES.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, DAVID S. (Ross, of Cincinnati, in the county of Hamilton and State of Ohio, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Railroad-Oar Brakes; and I do hereby declare that.the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making a part of this specification, in which Figure 1 represents a side view of the runninggear of a railroad-car having my improvement. Fig. 2 represents the bottom view of the spring, pawl, and rack.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the drawings.

My improvement relates to the class of railroad-car brakes which are adapted to operate 0 )ntinuously on en tire train; and my invention consists in a provision for equalizing the rubber action throughout the train, and for bringing the rubbers in the rear portion of the train immediately and effectively into service.

To enable others skilled in the art to fully 11 iderstand and construct my invention, I will proceed to describe it.

A represents the bed or frame; B B, the front and rear trucks, respectively.

0 O O O are the running wheels.

D D D D represent rubbers of customary form suspended from the truck-frame. These rubbers are connected to the hand-brakes at both ends of the car by the customary rods.

E E are levers F F F F, connecting-rods; G G, rods.

H in Figs. 1 and 2 represents rods and chain connections, terminating in longitudinal bars or heads 0, suspended by stirrups 1 I from rack J, which is fastened to frame or bed A, allowing stirrups I I to slide on rack J, held apart from the heads or bars 0 O by means of a flat spring, L. A bent pawl,K, under any excess of tension, meshes into a rack, J, upon the car-body, so'as to determine the pressure upon the brakes of that particular car, and to enable the entire tension to pass onward to the brakes in the car immediately following, and so on.,to the rear of the train in quick succession, thus relieving the wheels of the front car from undue pressure and from the danger of sliding and wearing into facet s, and by the very same means insuring a speedy and adequate action of the rearbrakes.

It is evident that this device may be applied either exclusively in connection with handbrakes or exclusively with power-brakes, or with both. In connection with handbrakesit will prove an effectual estopple to the prevalent practice of inordinate rubber-pressure acting to stop the wheels and causing them to wear polygonally.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, 1s-

The self-acting pawl K and its described or equivalent accessories, for the object set forth.

DAVID S. CROSS.

Witnesses WILLIAM J. FE'IIIERSTON, THOMAS BUSSERT. 

